Viral Videos

This topic is a huge topic area to cover. I think that I am just going to take a few viral videos that I think are notable case studies of points that I think are interesting about viral videos. Most of these are based on the fame that is gained through viral videos. Some people want this fame while others don't. Also the rewards/benefits that people gain from their videos can be pretty crazy too. Here are some examples. The first video that came to my mind when viral videos came up is one that is often quoted by my best friend and I while walking around campus and noticing vans, this comes from the "Damn Daniel" vines that have gotten a lot of attention. After they got so much attention, as sometimes happens, Ellen invited them on her show and interviewed them about their journey to fame. It started when Josh took a video on his snap then people thought it was funny so he continued taking them, and then uploaded it to Twitter where it gained it's initial traction. From there Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, and a ton of other news sources talked about it on their feeds. While on the Ellen show they were offered a life time supply of vans, that they then donated to charity. While not a video, there is Alex from Target who gained fame from a teen girls posting a picture of him on Twitter and ended up on Ellen as well. He didn't want this fame and the attention was actually something that was overwhelming to him.
Viral videos are something that I feel little people have control over. Sometimes candid videos are the ones that go viral, while others try really hard to create a viral video, then the one they don't expect or want to are the ones that go viral (cough cough Travis Chambers that we have heard from this semester). Viral videos can be really effective in telling what a culture likes and how they communicate. Viral videos can also be used effectively by businesses and activists to gain awareness or action for a campaign. Yet again I feel like it is difficult to control and know what makes a video go viral and how exactly it is going to be perceived.